US Domestic News Roundup: U.S. Supreme Court to hear fight over Biden immigration enforcement policy; Trump ally Devin Nunes can sue NBCUniversal for defamation - judge and more

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

U.S. Supreme Court to hear fight over Biden immigration enforcement policy

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday is set to consider whether President Joe Biden's administration can implement guidelines - challenged by two conservative-leaning states - shifting immigration enforcement toward public safety threats in a case testing executive branch power to set enforcement priorities. The justices will hear the administration's bid to overturn a judge's ruling in favor of Texas and Louisiana that vacated U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) guidelines narrowing the scope of those who can be targeted by immigration agents for arrest and deportation.

Trump ally Devin Nunes can sue NBCUniversal for defamation - judge

A U.S. judge on Monday said Devin Nunes, the former California congressman and an ally of former U.S. President Donald Trump, can sue NBCUniversal for defamation over a comment by Rachel Maddow concerning his relationship with a suspected Russian agent. Without ruling on the merits, U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel in Manhattan said Nunes "plausibly allege actual malice" with respect to a statement from a March 2021 broadcast of MSNBC's "The Rachel Maddow Show."

Trump Organization defense rests case in criminal tax fraud trial

Lawyers for former U.S. President Donald Trump's real estate company rested their case on Monday after calling just two witnesses in the Trump Organization's criminal trial in a New York state court on tax fraud charges. Outside accountant Donald Bender wrapped up his testimony for the defense and was followed on the witness stand by a paralegal from the offices of one of the defense lawyers. Juan Merchan, the judge in the case, set closing arguments for Thursday and Friday with jury deliberations expected to begin next Monday.

Three U.S. citizens indicted for funding Cameroon insurgents

Three U.S. citizens of Cameroonian origin have been arrested and charged with raising funds for separatist fighters in the Central African country, the U.S. Justice Department said. Cameroon is a mainly French-speaking country with an English-speaking minority that has long complained of marginalization.

U.S. Supreme Court leans toward limiting public corruption prosecutions

U.S. Supreme Court justices on Monday appeared poised to make it tougher to prosecute political corruption cases as they signaled sympathy toward appeals by an ex-aide to Democratic former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and a businessman of bribery and fraud convictions. The justices heard arguments in appeals by Cuomo's former executive deputy secretary Joseph Percoco and onetime construction company executive Louis Ciminelli, who were charged in a corruption crackdown by federal prosecutors in Manhattan centered on the halls of the state capital of Albany.

Virginia Democratic congressman Donald McEachin dies

U.S. Representative Donald McEachin, a Democrat from Virginia who was recently re-elected to his fourth term in Congress, died on Monday aged 61, his office said. McEachin had been battling colorectal cancer since 2013, his chief of staff, Tara Rountree, said in a statement.

U.S. Supreme Court defends Alito over report of second leak

The U.S. Supreme Court's legal counsel on Monday defended Justice Samuel Alito after two Democratic lawmakers demanded answers about a former anti-abortion leader's claim that he was told in advance about the outcome of a major 2014 ruling the conservative jurist wrote in a case concerning contraceptives. "There is nothing to suggest that Justice Alito's actions violated ethical standards," legal counsel Ethan Torrey wrote in a letter to Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and Representative Hank Johnson.

Buffalo supermarket shooter pleads guilty to terrorism, murder

An avowed white supremacist pleaded guilty on Monday to first-degree murder and other state charges in a mass shooting in May that killed 10 people at a supermarket in a predominantly Black neighborhood of Buffalo, New York, prosecutors said. At a hearing at Erie County Court, Payton Gendron, 19, pleaded guilty to multiple counts related to the shooting, including a charge of domestic terrorism motivated by hate.

Republicans in one Arizona county refuse to certify election results

Republican officials who have embraced voter fraud theories resisted certifying the midterm election results in one Arizona county on Monday, defying a state deadline and setting the stage for a legal battle. In Cochise County, a conservative stronghold in southeastern Arizona, the two Republican members of the three-person board of supervisors voted to postpone certifying the county's election results. They said they wanted to hear more evidence from those who have argued, without evidence, that the county’s voting machines were not properly certified.

Leon Black accused in lawsuit of raping woman in Jeffrey Epstein's mansion

Leon Black, the billionaire co-founder of private equity firm Apollo Global Management Inc, was sued on Monday by a woman who said he raped her two decades ago in the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's Manhattan mansion. Cheri Pierson said she had been a cash-strapped single mother who had already given Epstein five massages for $300 each when the financier arranged in the spring of 2002 for her to massage Black for $300.

(With inputs from agencies.)